Update. Serving a Faithful God. Winter in this issue. God s Faithfulness to Alumni of Greenville Seminary

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1 in this issue Alumni UPDATES: The Blessing of Theological Education - Reverend Steve McGee - Reverend Mike McGee Reformed University Fellowship - Reverend Josh Martin In Uganda - Reverend Phil Proctor Update Winter 2006 Serving a Faithful God God s Faithfulness to Alumni of Greenville Seminary THIS MONTH WILL MARK MY FOURTEENTH year in the Gospel ministry. I have had the privilege of serving in the church of Christ as a church planter, pastor, and now as a missionary in Trinidad/Tobago. I attended Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary from I was able to finish my last two years of seminary while serving a mission church of South Florida Presbytery (PCA) in Lake Okeechobee, Florida. Prior to attending Greenville, I attended Columbia Bible College from and graduated with a BA in Bible and Theology with a minor in NT Greek. continued on page 2

2 When I began my studies at Greenville I was very new to the Reformed Faith. My background at this point was Southern Baptist, Arminian, and dispensationalist. Dr. Richard Belcher, a professor at Columbia Bible College, introduced me to the Reformed Faith and later became my mentor. I took almost every class he taught. In my senior year at Columbia I began the process of looking for a seminary to attend. Dr. Belcher, and his assistant, George Anderson, recommended Greenville Seminary. Mr. Anderson attended the same church as Dr. Jay Adams when he lived in Georgia. I am thankful for the education that I received from Greenville Seminary. The professors not only taught the Sovereignty of God but modeled it before the students. Many schools place an emphasis on the methods of ministry (the church growth model) and psychology in their pastoral counseling. Greenville taught me to know the Word of God, to preach the Word of God and to leave the results in the hands of God. The Word and the Sacraments are the means of Grace and God is pleased to use these means by imperfect men to call sinful men to Himself. This has been a great comfort to me in the ministry. I am also thankful for Greenville Seminary s emphasis on Historical Theology, Church History, and the Biblical languages. I had the privilege of studying under Dr. Gregg Singer, Dr. Morton Smith, Dr. Jay Adams, and Dr. Ben Shaw. Dr. Singer taught me the importance of history and that ideas have consequences. He had a unique gift of being able to lecture about events and ideas which occurred hundreds and thousands of years ago and show the consequences of those ideas in the church and world today. God used Dr. Singer to stir in me a passion for history and to give me a Reformed world and life view. Today, as a professor of Historical Theology at Grace Bible College, I have a passion and desire to pass this love of Church history and historical doctrine on to my students and show them the importance of knowing Historical Theology. Dr. Smith s classes opened my eyes to Reformation theology and that Reformation theology is in fact historical Protestantism. Any move away from Reformed Theology is a move back to Rome. He taught me Biblical Worship and that worship is the most important service we perform on earth. Worship is a dialogue between God and the worshipper. God has told us in His Word how we are to worship Him. I was totally blown away when I first heard this in class! Here I was in church for years and had a four year degree in Bible/Theology and yet I was hearing these things for the first time. I determined from that day forward that worship would be the first thing I taught to my congregation if and when God would call me to a church. Dr. Adams taught us how to use the Scriptures in counseling. Counseling is really private preaching and is dealing with the realm of sanctification. Therefore, we cannot counsel an unbeliever but first must evangelize them. What a concept that was when I first heard it, but it is a Biblical concept. His class was a breath of fresh air because churches, Bible colleges and seminaries were filled with psychology and psychological methods in counseling. A seminary s approach to counseling was an important criterion for Rev. Steve McGee is an ordained minister in the United Reformed Churches in North America (URCNA). Rev. McGee was ordained in the Presbyterian Church of America and served in the PCA as a student supply and pastor of Faith Presbyterian Church (mission church) in Lake Okeechobee, Florida. Rev. McGee is associate pastor of Bethel United Reformed Church in Jenison, MI, and is on loan to Grace Bible College, D abadie, Trinidad. He is professor of Historical, Practical & Systematic Theology. 2 3

3 4 me when I was looking at a seminary to attend. Greenville met this standard and I am thankful that I had the opportunity to sit under the teaching of Dr. Adams. After graduating from high school in 1993, my son, Mike, attended Christ College. The college relocated to Virginia during his time there and because of his job he was unable to make the move (he was working his way through college). Michael was also called to the ministry and he sought my counsel on what seminary to attend. Naturally, I recommended Greenville and had the privilege of participating in his graduation in I am so thankful for the education that my son and I received at GPTS. And under the leadership of Dr. Joey Pipa, the Seminary has remained faithful to the Reformed Confessions and Biblical worship. ~ Reverend Steve McGee When I arrived at Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary in the fall of 1996, I knew that I was going to receive a sound education. My father had graduated just a few months earlier, and as I witnessed the results of his studies at Greenville, I desired to be trained for ministry in the same way. Over the course of the next five years my expectations became reality as I completed my studies toward a Divinity degree. During that time, I was well-equipped for pastoral ministry through the influence and teaching of godly men in the Scriptures, theology and especially homiletics. Along with this instruction came the cultivation of a deep love for the Bride of Christ. I was challenged to recognize that my education was not simply to acquire knowledge, but that the knowledge gained was for the purpose of nurturing and edifying the Bride of Christ. This broad love for the Church universal became particularized when I was called to be the pastor of Harvest Reformed Church in Minot, North Dakota. Among this body of believers, I have been able to minister joyfully, attempting to put into practice the comprehensive education I received at GPTS. I am truly thankful to the Lord for the faculty of GPTS and their desire to train godly men to minister in local congregations and to shepherd them lovingly, as Christ our great Shepherd cares for His flock. ~ Reverend Mike McGee REFORMED UNIVERSITY FELLOWSHIP I graduated from Greenville Seminary in 2001 and moved to Cleveland, MS to work with Reformed University Fellowship (RUF) at Delta State University. My wife, Sara Parks, and our children Ben and Meg have been at DSU for four and a half years. For those of you who do not know, RUF is the college campus ministry of the PCA, and is present on nearly one hundred campuses in North America. RUF is a Word based ministry. In everything we do, we focus on the power and sufficiency of Scripture. Teaching the Bible at a large weekly group meeting and working one on one with students are two of the main aspects of the work. Through these and other avenues of ministry we have seen God convert students and have baptized them as they join the local body of Christ. We have encouraged them to grow in grace as they walk with the Lord, to look toward evangelism and missions on our campus and beyond, to enjoy fellowship and service unto God, and to develop a Biblical world and life view. Let me share one story from a student. The day after a large group meeting where I taught from Mark 5 about the Geresene Demoniac, we had coffee. I knew this young man s background; drugs, women, and alcohol had consumed his life. I also knew that God was working in his heart. He sat down and said, That story last night was about me. I was a beast of a man, totally out of control. But because of Jesus, I am sitting here clothed and in my right mind. Some of my goals for RUF at Delta State are to give students a vision for the glory of God, a love for the gospel of Grace, and a passion for godly living. I truly believe my time at GPTS has helped my students and me as we labor for His kingdom on the college campus. ~ Reverend Josh Martin 5

4 After graduating from GPTS in May of 2003, I accepted a call to serve the Orthodox Presbyterian Church as a missionary/evangelist to Uganda. Our family arrived on the field in early November of that year, and we took up the work in Mbale. The Curtos were coming to the end of their term, and I was to take up Dr. Curto s labors as he moved to Greenville and GPTS. The Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Uganda (OPCU) had been formed immediately prior to my arrival on the field, and I have been assigned by our mission to work with the Ugandan brothers in building an indigenous church. Our goal is to see Christ grow them into a self propagating, self-sustaining, and self-replicating denomination. To this end, my labors are focused on establishing a Theological College for the purpose of training ministerial candidates, working with individual congregations in leadership training, advising the presbytery in establishing both the principles and the habit of good governance, and working with the brothers to handle the very difficult problem of a self-sustaining ministry in an economically challenged third-world context. I have been on the field for just over two years now, and the Knox Theological College has been established and is halfway through its first three year crop of students. We rely heavily on ministers and Ruling Elders who are willing to come and teach for three week periods, enabling me to step out of the classroom and into field work during those times. The OPCU currently has one national presbytery with five established congregations and seven mission works. On the Lords Days I preach in PHIL AND MEREDITH various PROCTOR congregations, and I work with Lydia Melyn, Hannah the presbytery, Joy Mwende, offering Naomi counsel Kathryn, as they John Knox work through matters counsel that is particularly aimed at how to be consistent Orthodox with their Book Presbyterian of Church Church Order in Missionaries of The UGANDA and the basic principles of Presbyterian church government. I am guiding the OPCU in sending out its first foreign missionary, and pray that I will soon be able to announce that the Ugandan church has undertaken the call of foreign missions itself! The Pray Orthodox for the brethren Presbyterian as Christ Church COMMITTEE builds His glorious ON FOREIGN church here MISSIONS in 607 Uganda. North Easton Road, Building E P.O. Box P, Willow Grove, PA Phone (215) Fax (215)

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